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20/06/2006
Warning over salt and fat in children's food
Parents are being warned to carefully check the salt and fat content in their children's food after a survey found that some foods contained double the recommended dose of salt or fat.
The Trading Standards Institute analysed nearly 300 different food items which are popular with children, including breakfast cereals, ready-made lunch box foods, crisps, sweets, ready meals and drinks.
The survey found a wide variation in fat and salt contents, with some sweet products containing as much as 33g of fat, while others only had 0.1g, while some ready-made meals contained as much as 6.9g of salt, while others just contained a trace.
The survey found that a child who ate the highest fat content breakfast cereal, snack, ready-made lunch box, cereal bar, chocolate bar, ready-made meal, dessert and drink in one day, would consume 133.7g of fat - well over the maximum guideline of 85g and 70g of fat recommended for 11-14-year-old boys and girls, respectively.
If children ate the products with the highest salt content, the TSI warned, they would consume 13.5g of salt per day, more than twice the recommended daily amount for 11-14 year olds.
The TSI said that parents should look at the amount of fat and salt in each single product pack, rather than in the amount per 100g and called for a compulsory food-labelling system to be introduced throughout Europe.
(KMcA/SP)
The Trading Standards Institute analysed nearly 300 different food items which are popular with children, including breakfast cereals, ready-made lunch box foods, crisps, sweets, ready meals and drinks.
The survey found a wide variation in fat and salt contents, with some sweet products containing as much as 33g of fat, while others only had 0.1g, while some ready-made meals contained as much as 6.9g of salt, while others just contained a trace.
The survey found that a child who ate the highest fat content breakfast cereal, snack, ready-made lunch box, cereal bar, chocolate bar, ready-made meal, dessert and drink in one day, would consume 133.7g of fat - well over the maximum guideline of 85g and 70g of fat recommended for 11-14-year-old boys and girls, respectively.
If children ate the products with the highest salt content, the TSI warned, they would consume 13.5g of salt per day, more than twice the recommended daily amount for 11-14 year olds.
The TSI said that parents should look at the amount of fat and salt in each single product pack, rather than in the amount per 100g and called for a compulsory food-labelling system to be introduced throughout Europe.
(KMcA/SP)
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